Audio 3:02
Final voyage home for 'City of Adelaide'

Caroline WinterUpdated
Sat 25 Jan 2014, 9:14 AM AEDT

After a lengthy campaign, the world's oldest surviving clipper ship is about to return to Adelaide for good after decades in the United Kingdom. The 'City of Adelaide' ferried migrants to South Australia in the 1800s, but in recent years it was left rotting in Scotland.

Transcript

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Fourteen years ago a campaign was launched to bring the world's oldest surviving clipper ship to Adelaide from the United Kingdom.

Some UK enthusiasts hoped to keep the ship in the UK but its South Australian connections ran deep.

The 'City of Adelaide' ferried migrants to South Australia in the 1800s.

The ship has just reached Western Australia and is now preparing to make its final voyage home next week.

Caroline Winter has the story.

CAROLINE WINTER: The arrival of the historic passenger ship has been a long time coming for Adelaide's Pam Whittle.

PAM WHITTLE: I feel excited, very, very passionate because of my long history of discovering it way back in 1962, and also I think a little bit of fear; a mixture of emotions really.

CAROLINE WINTER: What she discovered were her family ties to the 'City of Adelaide'.

It was Pam Whittle's great-grandfather and a clipper ship captain, David Bruce, who, after many journeys from England to Australia, proposed the vessel be built.

PAM WHITTLE: Loved South Australia; could see the potential of mining, farming and other areas. And so when he went back he decided to have a ship built in Sunderland for South Australian trade, and he wanted it named the 'City of Adelaide'.

CAROLINE WINTER: Between 1864 and 1886 the clipper ferried migrants and goods from England and Europe to South Australia.

Later it became a floating hospital, naval drill ship, and clubrooms.

But after sinking in Scotland in the 1990s, it was towed to a slipway on the coast where it remained for 20 years.

PETER CHRISTOPHER: It's the oldest remaining such clipper ship in the world and it was the first of its kind. A composite clipper is one with a wooden hull and iron frames.

CAROLINE WINTER: Peter Christopher is from the City of Adelaide Preservation Trust.

Fourteen years ago he headed a group which vowed to bring the ship home and preserve it for future generations.

PETER CHRISTOPHER: This has mostly taken on average 25,000 volunteer hours a year just to get to this point. It has been a huge exercise.

CAROLINE WINTER: And a costly one: $6 million from the Australian and Scottish governments and a whole lot of fundraising paid for years of lobbying, planning, and eventually the building of a massive cradle to transport the clipper across the seas.

Peter Christopher again:

PETER CHRISTOPHER: The fact that it's been saved is pretty terrific. The fact that we've actually got it to Adelaide, given the quite formidable tasks we had to face, is quite unbelievable.

CAROLINE WINTER: Tasks like battling a group in Sunderland that wanted to keep the 'City of Adelaide' in England.

Irish filmmaker Brian O'Glanby has documented the whole journey.

BRIAN O'GLANBY: A significantly important artefact like this will not go without a fight. There's a lot of natural British historians thought it was tantamount to stealing the Crown Jewels, as they would say.

CAROLINE WINTER: He will be among many gathered at Port Adelaide when the historic clipper ship arrives on Friday.

BRIAN O'GLANBY: The mammoth engineering operation that substantiated the whole move and the planning behind that is eye opening and absolutely inspiring.

CAROLINE WINTER: The 'City of Adelaide' will temporarily live at dock one until a permanent home at Port Adelaide is decided.